This week we have been working in the beautiful studios at Dance East in Ipswich and what a treat it has been. Not only do we get to walk down the harbour every morning with the Autumn sun beaming down (although it is raining today so not as fairytale like), but we get to work in the most stunning studios. We are having a ball to say the least. I haven’t laughed this much in rehearsals in a long time. Its tough being in a show whilst creating it but we are finding our way through it. We have a great team around us.

And this week a few of our collaborators have been in. On Monday we had the one and only Jeni Draper of Fingersmiths working with us and our BSL interpreter/performer Jemima Hoadley. Jeni will also be working with us on our access throughout all our work throughout the next few months. Anwar Russell, our dramaturg has been keeping us on our toes and musical magician Ellie Westbrook has been doing her magic. And last but not least we have had Aisling Drennan in teaching us how to Irish dance!! Aisling used to be in Riverdance so to say we are fangirls is an understatement. I cant say I have been acting that cool around her at all hahaaa morto. She is also another Irish woman in the room, so her thoughts have been invaluable. (video above is from last week at the Candoco Studios).

One of my main worries before we started creating this show was that I didn’t want to offend my fellow Irish but I am feeling better about this now as I spent some time at Siamse Tire in Kerry (Ireland) and with the Director of the National Folk Centre of Ireland in August. We talked a lot about it. I now understand that I wont be able to please everyone but apart from that my experience of my culture is my experience and this is what I am creating this show about. I do think about our audience all the time when creating but sometimes we have to make decisions based on our gut feeling and just hope for the best that it reads to the people watching.

We had a mini sharing yesterday with the Dance East team, which was super helpful. We are looking forward to more sharings and getting the show up and running. Thanks for the tweet Dance East…. haha… the drama- this photo is from our Samantha Mumba dance (one of my gut feeling moments).